I ran into Felix a couple of months ago with Switch kites and firewire at mokuleia and he was testing one. I think they may add to the kite lineup. maybe a dedicated strapless model with just beefed up glassing. He said he loved it and was super stoked on it. I never rode it but just put it under my arms and had to say it looked like a really fun board. I will definitely demo one if they go into production. I have the 5'6 hellfire and love it. firewire construction for kiteboards is solid and great flex pattern on these things. If you go on the firewire forums, you may get a quicker answer. Not sure if those guys check this forum. Based on the outline, I think you ride the vanguard pretty short.

Was just informed that you can get any firewire board in their surfboard line custom made with the kiteboard construction minus the inserts(shaves off some significant weight). I'm also very interested in the Vanguard model and have heard good things as well, except the durability. Personally, I think the regular FST tecnology is strong enough for kiting and just look for slighty used ones on Craigs.

Had my first kite session with the Vanguard 5.4 today.
This is the regular surf construction, we have just added a full deckpad on it to help babying the (fragile) board. Weight is 2.9 kg fully equipped (thruster fins setup).
I won't go too deep in the test report, but a few points I can highlight are:
I am 1.91m/82kg and I was wondering if the 5.4 was too short, too low volume for me. Not at all, this size suits me well (my regular surfkite is a FW Quadra-5 6.0). You just need to adapt your positioning to the shape (feet placement and stance) otherwise you can easily become unbalanced.
The board is very comfortable in choppy condition, thanks to the large concave.
On the wave, the cut back can be very quick (pivot turn), and the board is very fast down the wave.
Overall a very exciting board that you can push hard in the waves
Conditions were side-on 20knts with lull at 15knts, 1 meter waves in average, Park 9m

Tested ans approved

Phil
Have Fun and Ride Safe

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Last edited by Phil on Fri Sep 20, 2013 10:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

If you check the Firewirekiteboard forum you'll find they are working on a kite specific model, probably have been for a few months now. There's been a lot of excitement about the potential. In choppy conditions it might be a little catchy on the nose. Lots of great reviews are coming in from people using the surf model. I'm hoping to find myself getting on one, hopefully they'll make a few different sizes.

PVITfrumBYRAM wrote:If you check the Firewirekiteboard forum you'll find they are working on a kite specific model, probably have been for a few months now. There's been a lot of excitement about the potential. In choppy conditions it might be a little catchy on the nose. Lots of great reviews are coming in from people using the surf model. I'm hoping to find myself getting on one, hopefully they'll make a few different sizes.

You're right, we are looking forward to receiving a kite version (size 5.4 only as far as I know). But it was good to check the potential with the surf version
Also, I have not experienced any "nose catching" despite the choppy conditions today, thanks to Daniel Thomson for such an innovative and good shape.

Very interesting. Will the kiteboard version come with insert for straps ?

Phil wrote:

PVITfrumBYRAM wrote:If you check the Firewirekiteboard forum you'll find they are working on a kite specific model, probably have been for a few months now. There's been a lot of excitement about the potential. In choppy conditions it might be a little catchy on the nose. Lots of great reviews are coming in from people using the surf model. I'm hoping to find myself getting on one, hopefully they'll make a few different sizes.

You're right, we are looking forward to receiving a kite version (size 5.4 only as far as I know). But it was good to check the potential with the surf version
Also, I have not experienced any "nose catching" despite the choppy conditions today, thanks to Daniel Thomson for such an innovative and good shape.

I have a couple of tomo boards. 5'4" and 5'2". (I'm 75kg) They are the latest hand shaped designs. I paddle the 5'4" as a thruster and am stoked with its performance in 1-6' waves. Surprisingly it goes well in the steep, hollow stuff even when it's big. The nose never catches. It's a full nose to tail concept design. Everyone that owns one comments on their speed. The board has more versatile surfing range than my regular short boards. It's my most prized board atm and I don't want to trash it kiting. I kite the 5'2". At first I found it a bit skitty or twitchy. It has a different tail design which makes it even looser. It pops in the air at the slightest opportunity. I'm playing around with putting more fin area in either a thruster or quad config, but conditions have been ordinary to gruesome here to say the least. I can see it working well once I get more used to the outline, turning speed, and dial in the fin set up.